Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 926: Chapter 348: Zhu Ling in Dire Straits, Eight Camps Martial Contest, Betting Five Years—East Ridge Has Fallen!

Moao Calendar, Year 131, September 15

Beining Mountain, Zhu Ling Village

Zhu Ling has always regarded itself as the leader of the eight villages of Beining Mountain, and there is some reasoning behind it.

Beining Mountain is located along the cliff line on the western side of Twin Dragon Mountain, so there is no camp further west; its southernmost part is also cliffs, with no route available; its eastern side is where the uncrowned king of the area, Beishuo Town, is located.

Looking at it this way, the only area left for camps to survive near Beining Mountain is in the north.

Indeed, this is the case. There may be many camps along the Beining Mountain line, but only eight have reached a village-level scale, all concentrated on the northern outskirts, and Zhu Ling Village was established the earliest among them.

There are rumors that Zhu Tong’s ancestors once held a high position in Beishuo Town, but later, as they aged and their cultivation ceased to progress, their status gradually declined, and the Zhu Family fell into decline as well.

Zhu Tong’s lineage was just a branch, sent out by the family over eighty years ago to open up new territories for Beishuo, to make achievements, but due to lack of initial strength, they never accomplished much.

It wasn’t until Zhu Tong’s grandfather, Zhu Ting’s generation, that they finally saw some improvement.

Zhu Ting was highly talented, breaking through the Cold Resistance Level in his thirties, leading Zhu Ling from a large camp to develop into a giant camp, and occupying the best piece of land on the northern side of Beining Mountain, laying the foundation for Zhu Ling’s village-level status;

Zhu Tong’s father, Zhu Hong, capitalized on this foundation, and when he came to power, the camp was nearly at village-level scale. After a few years as the leader, Beishuo issued a Zhenyu, granted town village objects, and Zhu Ling successfully ascended to a village-level camp;

Then, over twenty years ago, Zhu Tong took over the lordship, making Zhu Ling Village even more illustrious, both in terms of strength and in name, firmly claiming the title of the head of the seven villages.

Within the jurisdiction of Beishuo Town, the village level is already the pinnacle, unable to form a town city, as the Moao Nine Towns have explicit decrees that any village-level camp cannot exceed a population of 100,000. Once the population limit is breached, one-third of the population must move into the town city.

Beishuo does not randomly select this one-third of the population.

For a population of 100,000, one-third is roughly more than 30,000. These 30,000 include two-thirds of the camp’s Cold Resistance Level, half of the Earth-digging Realm, along with their families. The remaining quotas are mostly selected based on high talent.

Following this selection method basically means that as soon as a camp reaches the 100,000 population limit, Beishuo can instantly siphon off most of its elites.

Regarding this decree, the view of these village-level camps towards breaching the 100,000 population limit is quite complex.

On one hand, they naturally wish to move into Beishuo City for a better life;

But on the other hand, once drawn away, they can no longer wield power and influence in their original camp. Everyone understands the principle of preferring to be a leader of a little flock than a follower of a grand multitude.

Therefore, for Zhu Ling Camp, with a population of around 60 to 70 thousand and overwhelming strength in the entire Beining Mountain area, not only does it outshine the six other camps of the same level, but it can also intervene in the internal affairs of all camps within the area. This condition couldn’t be better.

As the current leader of Zhu Ling Village, Zhu Tong is indeed making every effort to maintain this status, and has done pretty well these years. All surrounding camps, except for Hongyuan Village, practically venerate Zhu Ling.

However, in the recent four years, the situation started to take a sharp downturn!

Four years ago, in the 127th year of the Moao Calendar, a camp named East Ridge suddenly emerged in the 15-kilometer-deep zone on the outskirts of Beining Mountain.

That East Ridge Leader, Lu Yang, claimed to be originally from the north, with his camp having suffered a ghost disaster, leaving him with only over 500 elites surviving.

Evidently refugees, yet their strength was absurdly formidable: over twenty at the Cold Resistance Level, and the remaining nearly 500 people all had Earth-digging Realm Limit Cultivation. This shocked the camps around Beining Mountain, inevitably stirring anxiety within them.

With such strength among the refugees, how strong was Lu Yang’s previous camp? The critical point is that this mighty camp was annihilated, suggesting that the power of the deceitful monster is even more terrifying?

These perplexities only made the people around Beining Mountain more wary of East Ridge, but not to the extent of fear, as they had the far more formidable backing of Beishuo Town.

Lu Yang, being new, was a tree without roots, and annexed Baisong Camp without authorization or a Zhenyu. Upon realizing this, Zhu Tong eagerly reported the situation to Beishuo Inspector He Wuyang.

And from this point, the situation of Beining Mountain, which had long respected Zhu Ling Village, started to change.

Unauthorised annexation of other camps without a Zhenyu, according to Beishuo’s law, is a serious crime, punishable by death for the leader at the lightest penalty, and with the camp’s dissolution, all Cold Resistance Level and Earth-digging Realm individuals being made mining slaves.

Zhu Tong was delighted because he thought he could use this issue to eliminate East Ridge. Not to mention that East Ridge itself was immensely powerful, its location lay right within Zhu Ling Village’s hunting area, naturally creating conflicts.

But no one expected what happened next: Inspector He Wuyang accepted Lu Yang’s bribes, not only helping East Ridge to cover up the crime but also personally securing a village-building Beishuo Zhenyu for Lu Yang. Additionally, he made a favorable case for East Ridge within the Beishuo Inspection Office. With these three maneuvers, East Ridge’s offenses not only went unpunished but also successfully took root in Beining Mountain.